Porsche Cars Canada - Import Process Sucks

[tawheed]

I've imported a few cars myself, no Porsches though. I did some research and there are ways to avoid the fees etc. A company like BMW has an agreement with RIV, as stated in the admissible vehicle list, that all inspections etc have to be performed at a BMW dealer. Porsche, as far as I know, does not have that setup with the government.

Hence, you could have the original owner of the vehicle in the states request a recall clearance letter directly from the manufacturer. Besides day time running lights and a metric speedo (quick change with the knob) no other modifications should need to be done. If these are done before entering the country your import should be as simple as your old one with Canadian Tire doing the out of country inspection and you being good to go!

[hosickjg]

I agree with Tawheed, why cant you ask the US owner to get a letter from the US dealer stating there are no recalls. Just get the buy to say the new buy wants to for personal assurance. Then supply that to RIV.

[BrentMcK]

Unfortunately, a letter generated from a US dealer or by Porsche Cars North America (US) will no longer satisfy RIV.

Porsche Cars Canada, supposedly through months of consultations with RIV, has set the new terms. RIV will only accept the clearance letter from Porche Cars Canada. It must have Porsche Cars Canada letterhead ... US documents will no longer work.

Unfortunately, if you want to import a Porsche into Canada you will be paying the fees to your local Porsche dealer and waiting for your aaproval letter to come from the Head Office in Ontario. There is no other way to "get around" the fees anymore.

Oh well ...

[Mark_T]

It gets worse than just N-spec tyres. I know a fella that works for a small local car lot, specializing in "toys". He was telling me that they sourced a US Porsche on behalf of a customer and the local dealership (apparently owned and operated by Ali Baba and associates) charged $1200 for the inspection. Just having N-spec tyres wasn't good enough - it failed because three of the tyres were N0 and one was N1.

After hearing a few stories like this I would never try and import a Porsche. If I couldn't find what I wanted in Canada then I would just buy a different car.

Mark

[SoCalKen]

Originally Posted by Mark_T

It gets worse than just N-spec tyres.

it failed because three of the tyres were N0 and one was N1.

Something like that should have been fixed before sending it to inspection. I'm not a fan of mixing front to back rubber but mixing just one corner? Hmmm?
Ken

[Mark_T]

Depends. If they were all put on new at the same time, same make and model, but one had a different N-spec, I wouldn't like being made to change it unless it required a change due to wear anyway.

[kpm]

Move to America...problem solved !!

[tawheed]

Originally Posted by BrentMcK

Unfortunately, a letter generated from a US dealer or by Porsche Cars North America (US) will no longer satisfy RIV.

Porsche Cars Canada, supposedly through months of consultations with RIV, has set the new terms. RIV will only accept the clearance letter from Porche Cars Canada. It must have Porsche Cars Canada letterhead ... US documents will no longer work.

Unfortunately, if you want to import a Porsche into Canada you will be paying the fees to your local Porsche dealer and waiting for your aaproval letter to come from the Head Office in Ontario. There is no other way to "get around" the fees anymore.

Oh well ...

The recall clearance letter doesn't have to be a letter. With my VW R32 they just punched the VIN into the vw.com site and that satisfied RIV. With Porsche, all you need is a dealer in the states to print out the screen of their online tool that shows the car has no open recalls.

[Aron in Toronto]

Originally Posted by BrentMcK

Unfortunately, a letter generated from a US dealer or by Porsche Cars North America (US) will no longer satisfy RIV.

Porsche Cars Canada, supposedly through months of consultations with RIV, has set the new terms. RIV will only accept the clearance letter from Porche Cars Canada. It must have Porsche Cars Canada letterhead ... US documents will no longer work.

Unfortunately, if you want to import a Porsche into Canada you will be paying the fees to your local Porsche dealer and waiting for your aaproval letter to come from the Head Office in Ontario. There is no other way to "get around" the fees anymore.

Oh well ...

I just checked the RIV website today and it looks as though the requirement for imported Porsches to be inspected at and updates done by a Canadian dealership has been taken off their list, so I would assume they will accept an official recall letter from whatever source you can get one from. The challenge will be to see if you can get one at a reasonable cost from a US dealer.

I've requested and been supplied with several documents at no cost from the US dealer that serviced my car for the original/previous US owner when my local dealer either refused or wanted hefty fees to print it off their system.

Aron